The present invention relates to a cleaner ribbon for a magnetic tape.
Various mechanisms for sending a magnetic tape are put to practical use. A means for shifting the oxide conversion surface of the magnetic tape and passing the tape through a magnetic converter or a magnetic head, for example, a means using a capstan, a means for reading or recording data and a means for deviating the magnetic tape dynamically and forcibly with regard to said magnetic head are provided in all the constructions.
During the reading and recording treatment by such a means, the oxide of the magnetic tape and foreign substances such as dust are easy to be collected on the surface of the magnetic head. This dust collecting action soils the head and reduces the conversion action on the head-tape interface.
In order to solve such a problem, a half measure of interrupting the feed of the tape at regular intervals to polish the surface of the head manually and clean with a solvent has been used. Such a manual means has defects in that the interruption of the feed of the tape results in a loss of time and manual cleaning becomes non-uniform owing to individual difference, etc.
Various measures have heretofore been proposed to obviate such defects. For example, a measure of replacing a magnetic tape by a cleaner tape, a measure of using a magnetic tape which itself has the same length as a cleaner tape, etc. have been proposed. Further, a measure of shifting the head periodically so that the head may be released from working with the tape to be cleaned and a measure of allowing a wiper or brush specially designed for the cleaning of the head periodically to act on the head have been proposed. Such previously known automatic head cleaning measures have not required manual labor but have cleaned the tape by removing the tape from the head periodically.
It has also been proposed to carry out the cleaning of a magnetic tape and a magnetic head with a cleaner tape automatically as shown in FIG. 1 in the accompanying drawings in order to improve the cleaning action.
FIG. 1 shows one example of the arrangement of an automatic head/tape cleaning device 10. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a head/tape cleaning part in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, a cleaner ribbon 1 is supplied from a supply reel 4 and sent to the head/tape cleaning part as shown in FIG. 2 through a roller 6. Then, the cleaner ribbon 1 enters a capstan roller 7. A capstan 7 rotates on a shaft 12 through a roller 8 by a frictional force. The cleaner ribbon 1 then enters the roller 8. A motor 9 connected to the roller 8 gives a driving force to the roller 8. A winding roller 5 is driven by a belt 13 through the roller 8 and winds up the cleaner ribbon 1, and 11 is a shaft common to the reels 4 and 5. FIG. 3 shows a prior art cleaner ribbon 1 consisting of a nylon woven fabric 1. Returning to FIG. 1, the cleaner ribbon 1 extends across a transferrer of a magnetic tape 3 and encloses the magnetic tape 3 in the length direction as shown in FIG. 1. The full line part of the cleaner ribbon 1 in FIG. 2 shows the ribbon arranged at a nonworking position, and the broken line part shows the ribbon arranged at a working position. In the latter case, the cleaner ribbon 1 enters between the head and the tape and is arranged at such a position as the magnetic tape 3 is separated from the magnetic head 2.
The cleaning of a magnetic tape with the cleaner ribbon 1 has defects in that, since the head/tape cleaning device moves and carries out cleaning on high speed rewinding or on automatic loading, the cleaner ribbon 1 made of a nylon woven fabric rubs violently against an organic binder in the magnetic layer of the magnetic tape 3, causing an obstacle due to static charge, and the magnetic layer of the magnetic tape is damaged by the edge 15 of the nylon woven fabric 1 shown in FIG. 3, producing worn-out powder.